Hospitals Posting Real Prices Before Care Could Soon Be The New Reality

A national grassroots organization is pressing Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) to prioritize health care price transparency in upcoming legislative negotiations, arguing that a key pillar of President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda now hinges on congressional action.

In a letter delivered Thursday, Save Our States (SOS) urged Thune to make price transparency “a top policy priority” as Senate committees prepare to take up health care legislation in the coming weeks. The push comes as lawmakers return to Washington and begin shaping what could become the GOP’s next major domestic policy package.

“Price transparency is the essential first step to healthcare affordability and returning accountability to American health systems,” Trent England, the group’s executive director, wrote in the letter, exclusively obtained by The Daily Wire. “Patients without access to clear prices lack the power to act as consumers … often leaving them with devastating surprise medical bills after it’s too late.”

The appeal highlights the Trump administration’s health care agenda, which has elevated upfront pricing as a central reform. Under the administration’s “Great Healthcare Plan,” officials have called for requiring providers and insurers that accept Medicare or Medicaid to publicly post prices in an effort to curb hidden costs and billing surprises.

SOS is now pushing the Senate to translate that framework into statute, warning that without enforcement mechanisms, existing transparency rules risk remaining uneven or ineffective.

As part of its recommendations, the group is calling for stricter compliance requirements on hospitals and insurers, expanded transparency rules covering “shoppable” services like imaging and lab work, and standardized disclosure of real out-of-pocket costs rather than estimates.

“Giving Americans power to act as informed consumers … addresses concerns about the cost of living, wage growth, and our overall economy,” England wrote. “Making healthcare prices transparent and fostering competition will allow Americans to keep more of their hard-earned money and face less financial uncertainty.”

The renewed push comes as polling continues to show overwhelming support for transparency reforms across the political spectrum. A poll released ahead of the 2024 presidential election by PatientRightsAdvocate.org found that 92 percent of likely voters support requiring hospitals and insurers to provide real prices upfront, including 94 percent of Democrats, 92 percent of independents, and 91 percent of Republicans.

The same poll found that 98 percent of voters support transparent pricing in health care, higher than support for transparency in industries like airlines, while 91 percent said upfront pricing would protect workers from hidden fees. Another 88 percent said transparency would increase competition and lower costs, and 77 percent indicated they would prefer a president who prioritizes such reforms.

The letter lands as health care costs continue to rank among voters’ top domestic concerns heading into the midterm cycle, adding pressure on lawmakers to produce tangible reforms.

In the Senate, legislation such as the Patients Deserve Price Tags Act, led by Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), has drawn bipartisan support in the upper chamber, signaling that transparency measures may be one of the few areas of health care policy capable of advancing across party lines. The bill would codify and expand existing federal requirements, though its fate remains tied to broader negotiations over a GOP health care package. With committee markups expected in the near future, SOS is escalating its push directly to Senate leadership as a broadly popular, commonsense policy with implications far beyond the health care system.

The moment represents both an opportunity and a test for Senate Republicans, who have rallied around the concept of transparency, but have yet to coalesce around a finalized legislative vehicle. Whether that urgency translates into legislative action, however, remains an open question. While the administration continues to advance its agenda and outside groups intensify their lobbying efforts, the Senate has yet to signal when, or whether, it will move a comprehensive health care package to the floor.

For now, the gap between policy alignment and legislative execution persists, leaving one of the administration’s most politically durable domestic priorities awaiting action on Capitol Hill.